For centuries, fishermen have sought to attract and lure large marine animals to aquatic vessels so that the animals could be more easily caught from the vessel. Carnivorous aquatic animals eat smaller animals, and are therefore attracted to blood or artificial lures simulating live bait. Methods to attract such large fish include large fishing rods attached to lures and bait, and placing “chum”, i.e. blood and animal pieces, into the water near the vessel.
Luring dredges are devices with multiple bait or lures that are dragged through the water by the moving vessels, simulating a school of fish, and thereby attracting the larger animals. Presently available luring dredges present a number of difficulties both in storage and in use. Many are difficult to store because they often are necessarily bulky, with thin, metallic arms extending out in many directions from a centralized hub, in order to avoid entanglements among the lures and bait on the arms. A luring dredge designed so that the arms cannot collapse takes up a great deal of space and remains vulnerable to breaking. Alternatively, the arms of some luring dredges collapse by folding together like an umbrella, or the arms are reversibly screwed to the centrally located hub. A drawback of these luring dredges is insufficient strength in the arms, since the arms of one current model are not permanently attached to the hub, and the arms of another current model are collapsible and have reduced strength at the joints.
During use, the arms of a luring dredge are subject to great and often varied forces of the vessel dragging the lure, and the water's natural current. As a result of these forces, the arms of current collapsible luring designs often break free from the hub, or they break internally. Further, as many current luring dredges require assembly from multiple components, use in an open vessel at sea is not convenient, and component parts are easily lost, such as the rivets used for assembly, wasting valuable resources. Assembling the various components of the dredges can take 15 to 20 minutes or more, wasting the time of the commercial or sports personnel.
Improved designs for luring dredges and methods of use are desirable.